Shaddy Installers.

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Yeah, why don't they buy that cheap piece of equipment for the 1 in 500 jobs where it would be required? !sadroll

DirecTV should supply it to them like the telephone companies do. But then again they should pay their employees like the telephone companies. DirecTV and E* will get by on the cheap for as long as it works.
 
When ever I do side work the first question I ask the customer before I take a tool off the truck is" and how will you be paying for the service today?"...I am not kidding. I use those exact words.. One time I got the I don't have the checkbook routine. I said ok....I pointed out to you that payment is expected upon completeion of the work.. you can go the bank and get cash...I got my money....ANother time I have a guy ask me if my terms were ...get this...Net 30 days....I almost laughed ion his face..He then tried this 'I have been in business for ..' I told him yeah, me too..You do business your way, I will do mine my way....I looked him straight in the eye and said If you had any intentions of paying me ,you would have not brought(BTW I was putting my stuff back on the truck) upo this issue"..I said as I got into my truck,"Lose my phone number"..
Moral to this story, never try to be a nice guy and put yourself in a position to get burned..Oh yeah, I do not take checks unless the customer provides me with the check before I work.I calll the issuing bankl to see if the check is good...I have a "no checks" policy on weekends and holidays...
If the person is desperate and I don't want to lose the job, i will take a check but with a stern warning in writing that there is a $50 returned check fee and if the check is returned twice I will make a bee line to the magistrates office to file charges. NC is very tough on check kiters..They will throw your ass in jail for writing bad checks.As for your scumbag deadbeat. I would have told him,"if you do not pay me I will simply undo the work I have done and when you are ready to pay me I will be more than happy to come back and fix the problem....

I can't believe someone would try to stiff an installer for the hard work they do but then again there are all types of jerks in this world. Was someone asking for $45 just to come out unheard of are normal? I've never heard of that before. That's what one local guy told me.
 
DirecTV should supply it to them like the telephone companies do. But then again they should pay their employees like the telephone companies. DirecTV and E* will get by on the cheap for as long as it works.

Unfortunately, D* does not do the installation of their systems. It is contracted out to various companies so each company would have to purchase one. Again, it's not a cost effective option when a shovel is available and you can charge the customer for the labor.
 
Unfortunately, D* does not do the installation of their systems. It is contracted out to various companies so each company would have to purchase one. Again, it's not a cost effective option when a shovel is available and you can charge the customer for the labor.

D* is trying to compete with the cable companies like they are some national cable company yet they are getting by on the cheap with the installs. Customers are led to believe everything should be free like I did a few years ago and they don't understand that the guy at your house is not getting paid anymore from D* for doing a tougher than normal install. I'm in the minority but I believe they should have a regional system of install companies, pay them like they deserve and give them the tools to do it like a ditch witch and yes even a bucket truck to trim trees to get the job done. Their two year commitment is absurd with all the wild variables of life and keeping a satellite signal. If you are going to tie people down to a two year commitment then you should make sure you can do everything possible to deliver your service. Since they don't they are open to law suits if the press the two year commitment. In two years people can lose their signal, their jobs and even their lives. Are they going to get their commitment from beyond the grave?:) Anyways their system is working for them because didn't the owner of D* just purchase Fox?
 
Dishcomm wrote:
A little education about contractors...BTW doesn't matter what trade. This is done all the time..The guy that you hired and wanted $750 or whatever...He wanted to get out of there. In other words he looked at a job that he felt was going to be a nightmare so he over bid it hoping to chase you away..Obviously he was successful...
One thing I can't understand though is if all you needed was for one dish to go to the front part of thre roof, what the hell was the big deal?..A little education about contractors...BTW doesn't matter what trade. This is done all the time..The guy that you hired and wanted $750 or whatever...He wanted to get out of there. In other words he looked at a job that he felt was going to be a nightmare so he over bid it hoping to chase you away..Obviously he was successful...
One thing I can't understand though is if all you needed was for one dish to go to the front part of thre roof, what the hell was the big deal?..


Actually I got the quote the following day from the office after the installer went back and reported the situation. I don't think he was trying to avoid it although he told me that he wouldn't be doing the trenching. I'm surprised that they wouldn't have something like a ditch witch to lay this cable underground. I could have the tree cut down for the $750 (actual quote from tree service).

As for the new site, it was not known that this would work, till I thought of it after the 5th visit. I knew nothing about sat. locations when the dish was installed. It was implanted in the same place as the old SD dish. It worked till the leaves bloomed. Then came the revolving door of installers who merely confirmed that 119 was not being received and giving me conflicting info. on what to do. So I did a little reading on forums like these, bought a compass, did a rough elevation of the offending tree and reasoned that if I stepped back to the front of the house, I will be gaining in elevation on that tree and keeping everything else about the same. I asked the $750 installer to check this out with his inclinometer. He told me it might work, can't be sure till you get up there with a dish and even asked "why didn't someone think of this?"

I am entirely unimpressed by Mastec and D* handling of the matter is mind boggling. What really pisses me off is that after each visit, I'll get a phone survey from some outfit from India asking me totally irrelevant questions like "was the installer wearing a badge and dressed properly"
Unbelievable..After striking out in the rear of thre house I would have asked if you had any objections to the front of thre house..On the first visit!
I had one like that Saturday..Only the customer was not going for it..I had a good LOS for HD but the Dish would have been on the street facing side of the roof near the peak. He said no way. He was ok about it. However in the past I have had experiences with customers who took a street facing option away but still wanted to know why it wouldn't work...A few had insisted I set the dish anyway. Basically do the install to prove to them there is no line of sight..At that point I just tell them that isn't going to happen and they are free to get a second opinion...
But your case to me looked like a slam dunk.
 
DirecTV should supply it to them like the telephone companies do. But then again they should pay their employees like the telephone companies. DirecTV and E* will get by on the cheap for as long as it works.
Both satco's have one goal in mind...Keep programming rates to subs as low as possible...E* and D* will do whatever it takes to keep their rates on average lower than cable..Plus the satcos are dealing with the perception that cable cos will do any type install free of charge...Of course this is not true..Now, in order for your ideas to work, the machines to dig, bucket trucks to trim trees and union scale wages, the money has to come from somewhere....The source:..customers....
I can give you an example of how tough it is to get paid..
This Am we had a tech on site to do a simple single receiver add on...Well the order was improperly built(some say purposely) because the customer had two receivers of their own and had just moved into a nrew home...The job should have been three tv install..The tech was not going to do a 3 tv job for less than a thrid of the pay to add on on one to an existing system..Ouyr dispatch was on th ephone when I got to the office and was still on the same call 45 mins later when I left...From what I gathered form the half of the conversation I could hear the CSR supervisor was either stupid or just digging his/ her heels in and trying their best to not pay us...This is the crap we have to put up with..
My employers do not want to do fulfillment work..They would rather just do retail which is far more lucrative..But selling against national ads direct mail and other companies with huge ad budgets is difficult....Anyway....This is just one reason why after 9 years of doing quality work and taking pride in what I do, I have had it...I am not the only one who is getting out...
The "Free everything" message the satcos have been chirping for years is coming home to roost...The costs are rising and pay is stagnant. The satcos are demanding more and more for the same pay....It's too much..I have a warning for all customers who are satellite customers ..You will get what you pay for....
 
Both satco's have one goal in mind...Keep programming rates to subs as low as possible...E* and D* will do whatever it takes to keep their rates on average lower than cable..Plus the satcos are dealing with the perception that cable cos will do any type install free of charge...Of course this is not true..Now, in order for your ideas to work, the machines to dig, bucket trucks to trim trees and union scale wages, the money has to come from somewhere....The source:..customers....
I can give you an example of how tough it is to get paid..
This Am we had a tech on site to do a simple single receiver add on...Well the order was improperly built(some say purposely) because the customer had two receivers of their own and had just moved into a nrew home...The job should have been three tv install..The tech was not going to do a 3 tv job for less than a thrid of the pay to add on on one to an existing system..Ouyr dispatch was on th ephone when I got to the office and was still on the same call 45 mins later when I left...From what I gathered form the half of the conversation I could hear the CSR supervisor was either stupid or just digging his/ her heels in and trying their best to not pay us...This is the crap we have to put up with..
My employers do not want to do fulfillment work..They would rather just do retail which is far more lucrative..But selling against national ads direct mail and other companies with huge ad budgets is difficult....Anyway....This is just one reason why after 9 years of doing quality work and taking pride in what I do, I have had it...I am not the only one who is getting out...
The "Free everything" message the satcos have been chirping for years is coming home to roost...The costs are rising and pay is stagnant. The satcos are demanding more and more for the same pay....It's too much..I have a warning for all customers who are satellite customers ..You will get what you pay for....

Cable companies at least in my area are doing like D* & E*. The guy who came out to help me get 119 better use to work for charter and he told me his salary went from 50K a year to 40K a year and now they are paying their installers even less. So they are getting kids that don't know what they are doing and are not highly motivated. One guy I work with wasted two off days to have cable installed
and on the second day the guys said that they couldn't find the line. My co worker grabbed a shovel and found it and told them to run the line. FIOS is going to blow all these people out of the water when it gets going. You do get what you pay for period. The guy that helped get D* worked his tail off and I was out there helping him. I payed him and tipped him and thanked him very much.

I use to have a lot of anger towards Bruister but now I don't blame them. You see a difficult job that might not work move on to a sure thing. They have to feed their families also.
 
I'm looking forward to FIOS too, but we'll never get it, the local cable co has a lock on the phone, DSL and cable service, no competition.
 
when i go to get my brakes worked on it cost money when the plumber comes to my house it costs $. i install and hardly charge xtra for stuff cuz im sick people whining about xtra money.maybe offer a few bucks to a installer that looks and acts like a pro.the "shaddy" guy dont answer the door.
 
when i go to get my brakes worked on it cost money when the plumber comes to my house it costs $. i install and hardly charge xtra for stuff cuz im sick people whining about xtra money.maybe offer a few bucks to a installer that looks and acts like a pro.the "shaddy" guy dont answer the door.
This free, free,free crap is out of control..
I can make a few extra bucks selling upgraded HDMI cables and surge suppressors..That's easy money..but I refuse to allow it to offset and custom work the customer aske for...Sometimes I will run inot these horse traders that will say "well since I bought that suppressor you can wire such and such for free"...I flat out refuse ..I tell them that the cable and fittings cost me money and same will cost you money if they want it installed..I have no problem letting them know they are paying for my materials ,time and talent....
 
I wish I had been aware of the fact that the installers weren't D* employees. I would venture to say that many D* customers have no clue that the installers arranged by D* are not D* employees.

We just had our system re-connected after a few days of having switched over to TW and coming back. When D* said they would waive the $19.95 reconnect fee, I never dreamed that our installer would be here for over two hours and he would only be getting the $19.95 ... or a mere portion of that $19.95 because he is an employee of an installation company.

This reconnect should have been exceedingly simple with a minimal amount of time involved for an experienced installer. However, the TW guy removed one of the diplexers for our OTA antenna and took it with him (he left the other one and the cable it was attached to.)

Our D* installer had to determine that there was, in fact, a missing diplexer ... and that it was not installed in a different location than where we thought it had been installed originally. He never once mentioned that this extra work he was having to do would (or should) generate a higher rate of payment.

I was not happy about the fact that the guy was not able to get the OTA antenna signal working. I certainly would have understood if we had been expected to pay extra for his effort. Unfortunately, the poor guy finally gave up and had to leave, with the promise that his supervisor would come back the next day to determine why he was not able to get the OTA signal. Later in the day, my husband discovered what the problem was, switched the cable connections to the diplexer .. and BINGO ... we had OTA reception and let them know that they didn't need to come back!

Needless to say, I feel for all the installers out there who are faced with customers who do not understand that they don't work directly for D* and that they are sometimes entitled to additional payment from the customer for some of the services completed.
 
I've ALWAYS tipped my Directv tech.I think the guy who does my area is Smart ,Fast and does a clean job always.He is a heck of a nice guy too. Thats what I like about my small town,we always get the same Tech,everytime. Thats great because he knows my entire system without question.
 
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